Aleksander Dutov was born into a family of a Cossack officer. He graduated from Nicholas Cavalry School (1899), and the Nicholas General Staff Academy (1908). A participant of the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. Since 1916, he was the Commander of the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment.

In June 1917, the 2nd General Cossack Congress elected Dutov Head of the All-Russian Cossack Host Union. He took part in the State conference in Moscow, as Deputy Chairman of the Cossack faction. On October 1, at the Extraordinary Host Krug [assembly] of the Orenburg Cossack Host he was elected as the Host Ataman [Commander-in-Chief] and Head of the Host government. Dutov was approved by Aleksander Kerensky in the rank of colonel. In mid-October, he was appointed to the post of the Chief Plenipotentiary of the Provisional Government to supervise food supplies in the Orenburg governorate and the Turgai region with ministerial powers.

On October 26, 1917, he signed an order on non-recognition of the Bolsheviks’ power in the territory occupied by the Orenburg Cossack Host and began to establish paramilitary units to fight them. In November, he was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly to represent Orenburg Cossack Host.

In January 1918, Dutov took command of the defense of Orenburg from the Red Guards. After the defeat, he retreated with a detachment to Verkhneuralsk, then to the Turgai steppe. On July 7, 1918, he returned to Orenburg, which had been captured by the Cossacks (on July 3).

Dutov recognized the authority of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), and he was appointed its Chief Plenipotentiary in the territory occupied by of the Orenburg Cossack Host, as well as in Orenburg and Turgai governorates, and promoted to the rank of Major General (July 1918). In September 1918, he took part in the State conference in Ufa, as Chairman of the Cossack faction. For the capture of Orsk Dutov was promoted to Lieutenant General (September 1918). Since October 1918, he was Commander of the Southwestern (Separate Orenburg) Army.

He was among the first who recognized the supreme power of Aleksander Kolchak, in late 1918 – early 1920. He held the posts of Commander of the Separate Orenburg Army, Host Ataman of the Orenburg Cossack Host, and Chief Commander of the South Ural Territory. In May 1919, after a succession of defeats, the Orenburg army was disbanded, and Dutov was appointed a Pokhodny Ataman [inspector] of all Cossack troops of the Russian State and the Inspector General of the Russian Army. In September 1919, Dutov retook command of the restored Orenburg army, which, under the blows of the Reds, retreated to Semirechye, where he joined the army of ataman Boris Annenkov, and was appointed Governor-General of the Semirechye region.

In May 1920, together with the detachments of Ataman Annenkov, he moved to China, preparing to resume the anti-Bolsheviks struggle. In February 1921, Dutov was assassinated in Suiding, China, by the agents of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) during an attempted abduction.